Heres a 1989 dated 2 piece flight suit. All the info I have on these is purely from talking to guys around at the time. Apparently these were intended to be the first DPCU flight suits, the fabric was ordered in the base colour for DPCU then when the time came to have the camo printed someone realised this would destroy the flame retardent properties of the fabric so they were produced in this weird tan colour.

Martin wrote:I have a set of 1988 DPCU first pattern of the general issue webbing that I've held onto. I've seen some pics of early 1980s with trial DPCU webbing with DPCU SLR pouches - pretty cool...

I dare say Filupe has some cool 80s stuff...

hmmmm ... perhaps, back then it was a personal policy of 'acquire and cache' (read 'steal and hide!'), so I'm not really sure what I have in various tubs!

I remember just before Auscam became general issue the local Area Clothing Store had a mannequin done up with trial Auscams and the abovementioned SLR webbing in Auscam in addition to a DPCU pack which was cut in the last issue OD pack (with the oversized flap covering the outside 'ration' pouches.) I would have asked whether I could buy the ensemble but then realised that it would probably be under the charge of some cranky RQMS WO who would've refused purely out of spite ...